Anglo-Maratha wars and the fall

The Marathas · section 6 of 10

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In the second half of the 18th century, the Marathas were the chief rivals of the British in India. No other Indian power held as much land or as many armies.
The Maratha confederacy was not one kingdom. It was a group of big houses — the Peshwa at Poona (Pune), the Shinde (Sindhia), the Holkar, the Bhonsle and the Gaekwad — who owed loyalty to the Peshwa but ran their own armies and lands. [2]
This shape mattered. When the houses acted together, they were strong. When they quarrelled, the British could fight them one by one.
The NCERT chapter's verdict: "the British took India from the Marathas more than from the Mughals or any other power." Treat this as a claim of the chapter to attribute in an answer, not as settled scholarship among historians.

The three Anglo-Maratha wars ran from 1775 to 1818. They ended with the British as the top power in India.

First Anglo-Maratha War (1775–82)

It started because the British backed Raghunath Rao's bid to become Peshwa — that is, they took a side in a Maratha family fight over the top job. [2]
The British were defeated at Wadgaon in January 1779. [2]
It ended with the Treaty of Salbai (May 1782). The British gave up Raghunath Rao and kept only the island of Salsette, next to Bombay (now Mumbai), after seven years of war. [2][3]
In short, this first round was a draw. [3]
The NCERT chapter shows a mural of a British officer surrendering before Nana Phadnavis and Mahadji Shinde after this first war — a picture of the moment when the Marathas, not the British, dictated terms.

Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803–05)

Cause: Peshwa Baji Rao II was beaten by the Holkars, fled to Bassein, and asked the British for help. [2][4]
By the Treaty of Bassein, 31 December 1802, Baji Rao II agreed to: [4]
keep a British subsidiary force of six battalions (British troops paid for by him),
give up territory to pay for that force,
keep all other Europeans out of his service,
drop his claims on Surat and Baroda.
This treaty was a decisive step in the break-up of the Maratha confederacy — the Peshwa had signed away his freedom, and the other Maratha houses would not accept it. [4]
Battle of Assaye, 23 September 1803 — a big British win. Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) commanded the British East India Company force against the Marathas. [5]
Daulat Rao Shinde fought the Company at Assaye and Argaon in late 1803 and lost both. [6]
The war closed with the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon (Shinde) and the Treaty of Deogaon (Bhonsle). [2]

Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–18)

Trigger: the Governor-General Lord Hastings sent troops into Maratha land while hunting the Pindari raiding bands. [2]
The Peshwa's forces rose against the British in November 1817, followed by the Bhonsle and the Holkar. The Shinde stayed neutral. [2]
That split is the disunity point in one line: three houses fought, one sat out.
Defeat was swift. The Peshwa was pensioned off and his lands annexed, which completed British supremacy in India. [2]
The Treaty of Bassein of 1802 led straight to this 1818 annexation of the Peshwa's territories in western India. [4]

Increased internal disunity.
The houses fought each other over the Peshwa's chair (Raghunath Rao, 1775).
The Holkars beat the Peshwa himself in 1802, pushing him into British arms. [2]
The Shinde stayed out in 1817, so the last rising was never a joint one. [2]
Superior British organisational and technological abilities.
One central command and one paymaster, against five part-independent houses.
Better guns, drill and supply lines, shown at Assaye in 1803. [5]
The subsidiary force trap. Once a ruler paid for British battalions and gave land for their upkeep, he had British troops inside his capital and less money of his own — Bassein, 1802. [4]

Nana Phadnavis was a powerful official under the Peshwas — the man who ran the Poona government's day-to-day business.
Per the NCERT chapter, he is credited with organising the first pan-Indian anti-British alliance.
He united even old adversaries — Hyder Ali of Mysore and the Nizam of Hyderabad — with the Marathas against the British. These three normally fought one another.
This is the high point of the section: an Indian-led front across regions, before the disunity of the next generation undid it.
Mahadji Shinde, shown beside Nana in the surrender mural, was the Maratha leader who built up Shinde power in Malwa; his long rule ran from after Panipat to 1794. [7]
Nana Phadnavis died in 1800; Mahadji in 1794. Both deaths come just before the Peshwa's collapse into the Treaty of Bassein in 1802 — the generation that could hold the confederacy together was gone.

Three Anglo-Maratha wars: 1775–1818.
First war: British defeated at Wadgaon, January 1779. [2]
First war ended by the Treaty of Salbai, May 1782; the only British gain was Salsette island near Bombay. [2][3]
Treaty of Bassein, 31 December 1802 — Baji Rao II accepted a British subsidiary force of six battalions. [4]
Battle of Assaye, 23 September 1803 — won by Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington. [5]
Daulat Rao Shinde lost at Assaye and Argaon, late 1803. [6]
Second war closed by the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon and the Treaty of Deogaon. [2]
Third war (1817–18) began under Governor-General Lord Hastings during operations against the Pindaris; the Peshwa rose in November 1817, the Shinde stayed neutral. [2]
1818: Peshwa pensioned, his territory annexed — end of the Peshwaship. [2][4]
Nana Phadnavis — Peshwa's official, credited by NCERT with the first pan-Indian anti-British alliance joining Hyder Ali and the Nizam.

Disunity versus organisation. The NCERT explanation is two-sided: Maratha internal splits plus British organisational and technological edge. Use the 1775 succession fight, the Holkar–Peshwa clash of 1802 and Shinde neutrality in 1817 as the three proofs of disunity; use Assaye (1803) and the single Company command as proof of the other side. [2][5]
The subsidiary alliance as a weapon. Bassein (1802) shows how a treaty, not a battle, broke the confederacy — the Peshwa surrendered defence, foreign relations and revenue land, and the other houses read it as a sell-out and went to war. The same treaty logic ended in annexation in 1818. [4]
"Taken from the Marathas, not the Mughals." The chapter's verdict is arguable and good for a balanced answer: the Marathas held the largest share of post-Mughal India and fought three wars over 43 years, but Bengal (1757–65), Mysore and Sikh Punjab were separate conquests. Present it as the chapter's claim, then qualify.
Nana Phadnavis and the idea of a pan-Indian front. His alliance with Hyder Ali and the Nizam is an early example of Indian rulers seeing the British as a shared threat rather than one more rival court. Link forward to why later resistance stayed regional and lost.